Normal map support world be great. Not in a sense that the texture editor should necessarily have this but utilize normal maps for swapping out complex surface geometry sort of like how mip mapping is used for texture LOD.
Hi all,
I didn’t read all the replies here, so may be some of mine have already been suggested i dont know.
I have nice experience on; Solidworks, Inventor, Fusion360, Rhino, Blender and very well advanced on Sketchup. So my ideas are based on those, with the positive sides of course.
Sketchup is really user friendly in comparison to above programs (except Solidworks and fusion360, are equally user friendly, i can say)
But above programs have very very well thought gadgets/tools/facilities in their own habitat which Sketchup must integrate.
Below are my user experience based on all;
“SHOW/HIDE MENU”:
- There is hide rest of the model but there is none for “hide rest of the model but parent” Because when you select “hide rest of the model” and go deeper inside the group which is inside another group (because you need it) everything outside disappears or everthing outside appears. If i need a detail just one level above or few levels above, i can only unhide all. Model suddenly gets crowded. Especially in ortho view, you cannot dodge your camera behind an object obstructing your viewport (because of the way ortho works)
This can be achieved like this;
Under “Hide” menu and under “Hide rest of the model” menu;
Select the level you want to hide:
level 1 (When you go inside the group or component outside things disappear as normal, this is the very first level)
level 2 (When you go inside a group or component inside level 1)
level 3 (When you go inside a group or component inside level 2)
level 4 …
and so on… these levels are created as you make groups one inside another, deeper and deeper. Same parent/child order in Outliner (As an additional info with this option user also may know how many embedded levels inside that particular group or component without looking at the outliner hehe)
There should be a tick box against every level. When user ticks/unticks the box(es) then
that/those level(s) appear/disappear. (user cannot hide current level of course). Same like layers. But user
can hide/unhide even below levels.
GUIDE LINE TOOLS:
- Guide line tool can draw parallel to the edges and as a flat line. But it must be selectable. I need to draw a flat line where needed but cannot do it. Somehow Sketchup doesnt allow me to do.
- Guide line should be drawing Ngons, rectangles, circles, arcs, ellipses and offset by guidelines (from all the selected edges in one operation).
- Double sided guide line should be there (mirror guide). For example i m finding the center point of an edge and want to draw a 20mm width object centered to that point. I have to go 10mm to one side and 10mm to other side. It is a double job. Pls give ability to draw double sided guide lines. Also when you finished drawing your guide line, press x N to duplicate it on that direction N times. Draw a guide line type 50mm then enter then type x5 then enter, it draws 5 guide lines 50mm apart from each other. Same applies when you draw a guide line to a distance and type / N, divides that distance by N number of guidelines parallel to each other.
- Lines should be converted to guide lines or viceversa. Same applies to all guide line abilities (ngons, rectangles, circles, arcs, ellipses and offset)
- Loop cut by guide lines (Same in blender loop cut but with guide lines)
-Pls give more guide line banks. Presently only one guide line type is there. But when you select delete guide lines, all of them are gone (depending depth level in a group/component ofcourse). Pls give at least 3 guideline banks, with adjustable colors. So user can select delete group 1 or 2 or 3. This is much more proffessional in a 3d program.
-Chain guideline. Same like poly line, pls give ability for poly guideline.
CROSSHAIR:
- There should be a GUMBALL, TRACKBALL (or whatever the name is suitable for you). It is really necessary when many edges, vertexes around especially while working with splines. It keeps snapping everywhere.
- User can lock on surfaces, edges etc. Additionally user can lock on XYZ axes. Ok try to draw this: Open a new file, go to origin (just for ease of operation) Select line tool. Click the origin (up to here nothing special i know). Lock on X direction. Now draw a line 45 degrees diagonal to X axis. You can’t. Because naturally program does not know that you want to be on X and Z plane (in Solidworks, Inventor, Fusion360 there are planes to do this). I am not asking for planes method which is a even slower operation than my suggestion. There should be small squares at the center of above suggested GUMBALL. Each square are placed at XY, XZ and YZ with corresponding colors. When you activate the GUMBALL and select a vertex or an edge, click these small squares of your choice to activate desired plane. Rest of the model can be dimmed to give user a more focus. Now everything you draw is locked on these planes. You can always draw something outwards of those planes of course when ever you want, lets say a perpendicular line. I mean you are not trapped on those planes while drawing. Next step; user have the ability to rotate those planes with rotate tool, or as a faster method; same like small squares at the center of the GUMBALL, small quarter circles are there just outside those small squares. This is used to change temporary axes also. These are very common controls nearly in every 3D CAD software which Sketchup is missing. Needless to say, that GUMBALL has the ability to scale/bend/twist also. If SU team integrate this very special tool, it will be the heart of the program.
AXIS:
- Pls give axis a memory bank. User can name them in order to remember which axis was which one. Even you can give a preview, if user doubleclicks or accepts, that temporary axes are loaded. Actually the difficulty is when you want use a special axis direction and the surface is embedded inside many groups, you have to dig in. Just save the axis data and use it anywhere u wanted at anytime.
- Also above said GUMBALL can recall those saved axis data and of course save new axis data with it’s position (because in plane mode with the GUMBALL when you rotate the planes, actually you are modifiying the axis direction to get desired plane for drawing)
- There should be orient axes to camera (actually makes your viewport matching your camera axes)
MOVE TOOL:
- Move tool is able to move, and rotate objects (giving the move tool the ability to rotate is genuis!!). But it can move one selected group/component or entity(ies) in one direction only.
There must be some more options or modifiers. The one i suffer, which only exists in some other 3d softwares, move multiple objects away from a point or towards a point. For example, placed your objects in a circular array. Then you realized that they all need to move away from center or move closer to the center. Then you redo your action (or if they are components double click and move them inside their cab will do the trick), move the object away or closer the center then copy circular array again. So there is a faster way for this. Just select your objects, then click move tool, press ctrl+shift (ctrl+shift is vacant, which tells Sketchup that u want to do a away/towards move), pick a center point, then select your plane by arrow keys, drag your mouse left or right, your objects gets closer to that point or move away from that point. all together. Objects are not needed to be co-planar. All of them gets closer to that picked point or move away, simple. Why selecting plane with arrow keys; Because all the objects will be moving parallel to that plane. So if you drag to the end they end up on the same axis. This is the first ability of this tool. The other one drags or pushes away from the same point without obeying the plane you set before. So they end up at the same point, not the same axis as before. To do this do not press arrow keys after picking center point. On other words this is “Mirror move”.
- Centering move tool: Activate centering move tool, then select a point on your object then select first point of centering operation outside of your object, then the next point of centering operation, centering move command centers selected point on your object right in between those 2 points. I am doing it like this; drawing a line between 2 points, then selecting my object and moving my objet to the “center point of that line” then delete the line. But center move will do it faster and cleaner.
-Offset move: Activate offset move tool, then select the point on your object, then select the target point/edge etc then enter a value, your object moves but stops at the given distance (normaly you have to draw a guide line then move your object to that guide line. But with this it is faster).
GLUE / UNGLUE:
- when you start drawing on a surface it is auto-glued, well there is an option to unglue but no option to glue back. I can understand the programming reasons for this. I am just saying this 
LAYERS:
- When you create an object and assign many different layers to many different entities inside, there is no tool to reset all the layers to a desired layer at once. I mean you have to go one by one to each group/face/edge it is insane. Pls make an option to change the objects’ layer completely, entirely, with everthing inside to a desired layer.
- Layer order changes without my control. I want layers organized and do not change the order. It should be in alpha-numerical order or there should be up/down arrows to organize the layer order.
CURVES/SPLINES:
- By standart, sketchup does not provide splines of any kind. There must be a variety of splines including the most important “T-Splines”. While working with splines (provided by a plugin) Above explained GUMBALL is really needed. Because dragging the tip or the control points of the spline is very painfull, cursor snaps everywhere. I need to hide objects around and believe me there are toooo many entities around to handle, just to drag that spline to a direction. It is really a pain.
- By standart Sketchup does not provide helix, with options to adjust number of rotation, diameter at “variable levels” at both ends and several intermediate locations.
- Ellipse is missing.
- Expolded curves can still provide the center point data by drawing a perpendicular invisible line from their centers. The intersection point is the center point naturally. Pls include this, pls provide find center tool for exploded curves.
- 2 point tangent / 3 point tangent / 2 tangent + 1 diameter circle must be a standart Sketchup ability.
- On the corners, with arc tool you can fillet (or round that corner) and when you double click to other corners then sketchup remembers that arc and it is very fast and easy. But on the corner when you mark the distances by tapemeasure tool, for example; 30mm to either sides then draw an arc from one point to another, sketchup cannot find the tangent point. Also expected result from arc tool is this: At a corner, with tape measure mark one side at 30mm only, then pick arc tool and pick that point (without marking the other side of the corner 30mm) arc tool automatically finds 30mm on the perpendicular corner (or connected edge) for an exact filletting (or round cornering)
- Draw a circle enter diameter, then type x N, you will get N times more circles each one with an increment with given diameter. Draw a circle type 100mm then type x 3 you will get 3 circles. First diameter 100mm, second 200mm, 3rd 300mm.
- Draw a circle enter diameter, then type / N, you will get your diameter divided by N circles. Draw a circle, type 150mm then type /3, you will get 3 circles. First one’s dia 150mm, second one 100, 3rd one 50mm.
- Draw from the center or snap center. I know find center command is there. But when things get crowded, find center is just not enough. Give a command “snap center” automatically locks your cursor to center even for a circle or an arc inside inactive (from out side of a group/component). Select circle too for example, then right click on a desired arc/circle (active or inactive) select snap center and draw your circle, thats all.
-When you weld (by plugin) curves/edges and unweld (explode) them, they really shatter into pieces Expected result is this: Unweld once recovers the previous state (all the curves are intact same as before weld operation) then unweld again to get in to pieces. Why i am saying this here; plugin programmes may need a flexibility in the command flow in ruby code i believe. In short, exlode command should NOT explode everthing into small tiny pieces directly. It should first recover the previous state. If user wants it to explode more, then it will exlode everthing at the final (because there may be more than one “weld” operation was there, so Sketchup remembers everthing 
)
GROUPS / COMPONENTS:
- Cut opening cuts only one “FLAT” surface. If you have a corrugated surface or a complex surface (lets say organic), it cuts open only where the axes point touches. You already know it 
The rest of the surface stays there. So annoying. If you can integrate a “cutting box” or a “null box” the problem will be solved. A cutting box/null box is actually a shape you created. When you assign it “cutting/nulling” ability, it cuts everything inside it’s boundary (makes everthing invisible, doesnt actually cut or destroy the geometry) but when you group it with an object it doesnt cut it’s same group members, or the child members of that group. When you assign cut box ability, that object turns transparent yellow, indicating that it is a cutting box. Just draw a shape, place it in your group or component, assing “cut box” property to that object, and drag anywhere you want it will render anyyything (not belong to the group/component) invisible, when something goes inside, in it’s volume. So this is a dynamic thing. Actually it doesnt cut anything as i said before. You can think this acts same like section planes. But a little fine tuned to do the job. With this you are not to worry about double faces, triple faces or corrugated faces whatever. It will work everywhere. If you really make a phsical hole on that surface, make another object of any shape, then assign cut box ability, move it in to the geometry, then select “cut with the cutting box” fancy name haha, it will remove everything trapped inside it’s volume. Shortly same like “Blender’s” boolean tools When two different object come together you can see the boolean operation interactively then click to accept it. Awesome! Pls do the same. This cutting box is not only for components. It is for everthing… for gorups for individual entities, everthing.
- When you group 2 or more components, their cut ability vanishes (but with above ability nothing will vanish)
- When you copy a component already in your model to another place, cut opening is not working. You have to get a fresh copy from the components menu (i can understand the programming reasons for that)
- You can turn a group into a component, but you cannot turn a component into an ordinary group. You have to explode it then make a new group. Pls add a menu option/script which does this faster than a human hand
- When making a circular array, for example want to duplicate a group around a point at 90 degrees, ok copy with rotation tool and type “x3”. But sometimes you are typing “x4” or “x5” by mistake and you will never never know that there are exactly 2 or more groups or components sitting at the same position. So pls add “Delete doubles” command (same in Blender) or make it automaticly removing doubles.
- Groups and components should be welded together. What i mean is actually they are not joining by geometry because they are in different groups. Only the lines on touching edges disappear. So, from outside they seem like a single object. Welded (or joined or merged or whatever the term suits for you) bounding boxes turn to some other color, saying that they are welded/joined/merged components/groups. Groups and components can also be welded (not only groups to groups or components to components)
-In the components menu there should be “select instances” or “mark instances” and user should have the ability to scrool the instances one by one with left and right arrow keys (or buttons under that menu) selected components should be circled red or something else taking attention. When you place a component it only says 46 in the model but where? Ok you are gonna say me double click and you will see the sisters. No they are on different layers, i cant see them all and turning on those layers are hell. I need to cycle through all.
-Groups and components should have individual transparency. It is a nice ability (ie: Solidworks/inventor/fusion)
-when you right click a component on the viewport there must be a command “show this in the component browser”
-when you triple click to an entity it selects all connected. Same way when you hold shift and triple click to a group or a component, it should select all same groups or components depending on your active layer, active group/component (may be you are doing this inside a group or component. Operation does not go outside)
-highlight a group or component and select “reverse faces” it should automatically reverses the faces of the selected group/component (at that time “reverse faces” command is not available in the right click menu but if you assigned it to a key then it is possible. Or create a menu command in short).
MENU OPTIONS:
-Pls provide a textbox right top corner (or other suitable place) for seaching tools by name. I am doing this under preferences/ shortcuts window. It must be somewhere on the main screen (sloidworks is able to show even where that searched “command” is located at).
-Entity info window, when you go to “definiton” text box and hover the mouse over it, it only displays 2 words “definiton name” not the name given by you, only displays literally 2 words “definition name”. It should display the name of the entity.
-Snapping on/off button should be visible on the screen with a bunch of options. Same like in Rhino etc.
STYLES MENU:
-In the Styles there is “end points” option, but pls put in a seperate box to mark “mid points”.
LINE TOOL:
-When there are co-linear divided edges, you are not able to repair those edges by simply drawing a new line all over them. I was expecting a repair action but there is none Pls integrate this. When you draw a new line over all divided co linear lines, they are all repaired (become one again). For example circle tool repairs broken circles
-Limited line tool: select the line tool, click a point, then type “/100mm” (another prefix can be used but “/” gives me the feeling of “cut”). Your line will not exceed 100mm length in no direction no matter where your mouse pointer goes. You have limited your lines length to 100mm.
-From one point to another, line tool only shows distance. It should be showing the angles also. When you snap to another point with line tool, angles are displayed (ok the difficult question is which angle from which point :D. Ok lets start with the angles from X-Y-Z planes)
-Draw a line from one point to another, then type / N. Your line is divided into N pieces at that distance. Or type x N, then you will get another line added co linear to the tip of your line with the same length N times.
-For example line tool is active and you have selected a point. The other end of the line is following your pointer, ok, at this point double tap tape measure tool (actually tap “T” shortcut key) your line or poly line converted in to guide lines, if you shift+double tap “T” then the last segment (which is following your mouse pointer now" is turned into a guide line following your mouse pointer. If you are doing the same with guide line just double tap the line tool shortcut key, guide line turns into lines (pls see poly guide line above).
-Pls add loop cuts ability to lines tool (Same like in blender). Loop cut is able to loop cut curves also, not limited with lines (curves are also formed by lines oo yeaah).
RECTANGLE TOOLS:
-Select rectangle tool and pick the first point of the rectangle and start dragging your mouse. Size of the rectangle changes dynamically as normal. On the measurements you can insert any value, this is ok. But i need to make one side constant, for example i need my rectangle’s horizontal dimension constant at 700mm but want to adjust vertical dimension by mouse. type “/700mm” only, then horizontal size is locked to 700mm, only vertical dimension is dynamic now with the movement of your mouse. On the other hand, if i wanted horizontal dimension dynamic and want to lock vertical dimension then simply type “;/500mm”. Horizontal dimension is empty, followed by “;” (or i dont know which symbol is used according to your windows locale settings) then type /500mm. So it reads like this; first example “cut at 700mm then go free with the next dimension”. Second example “go free with the first dimension and cut second dimension at 500mm”.
SELECTION TOOLS:
-When you drag a box over the geometry it selects everything! visible or invisible, everthing. Then when you hit “del” key then many geometry can be deleted without noticing you. Pls make it “select visible only” and “select thru”. Alt key is suitable for this. Selection key is set to “select visible” by default. When you hit alt key it swithces to select thru.
-After your selection is done and some geometry is highlighted, use tab key or alt key again to switch between “select only faces, edges, vertexes” etc.
-You cannot select an area circularly or lasso style. Pls provide circular and lasso selection.
- Selecting exploded curves or divided edges is a real pain (when surrounding entities does not allow “select tool”). Pls add a tool “flow select” it selects segments one by one untill an intersection comes, then user shift+selects the new route and keep selecting and repeat this. For the loops, i believe this tool automatically select the ring (if it does not touch anywhere else)
ERASER:
-While dragging over the lines it jumps over some lines, so i need to come back. Could you pls increase the sampling rate for this tool if possible?
-Shift=hide, ctrl=soften/smooth. Expected “ctrl+shift” must be soften only. But it isnt. Could you pls give eraser tool the ability to soften only?
ALIGNING OBJECTS:
-This is a real pain when it comes to complex angles. You have to rotate 3 times. I know there are plugins doing this and i m using already. But pls observe “Solidworks Mating” tools. It makes aligning waaaay simple!!! Select source face then select target face, they mate, just reverse the direction if they are in the wrong direction or keep it if it is correct (in sketchup that will not happen because there are 2 sides of the faces. So, if you select correct faces then there will be no need for “reverse direction” button). Same applies to vertex to vertex mating, edge to edge mating, center to center mating (co-centric) for circles arcs etc. When there are 2 faces apart and you want to put something in between at the equal distance to both faces, you are to select only source faces then target faces, program automatically centers source to target between those faces. But there is a problem: You cannot select faces inside the groups or components simply in sketchup. But for the mating tool have to allow that
VIEWPORT DEVELOPMENTS:
ZOOM IN/OUT:
Behind faces, lets say 30mm thickness, while zooming out, objects start to appear behind the faces Behind should mean behind. Pls fix this.
MEMORIZING CAMERA ANGLES:
Simply adjust your camera to a desired angle then ctrl+1, or ctrl+2 or ctrl+3 and so on to quick assigning that camera angle to that key. Then just press 1 or 2 or 3 to go that camera angle again. Very usefull while working on the way sides on the model but you have to switch so frequently. (pls dont tell about scenes. It is a longer way believe me also scenes carry unecessary additional info just for this simple usage)
Clipping issue to be fixed. In blender it is asking for clipping distance.
Viewport angles are top, front,right,left,back. Additional options to be provided are;
-When in top view, it only looks at one angle. Cannot turn/tilt top view to left or right. Top view is single. User should be choosing which angle from the top? Same applies to left/right/back/front. Also there is no bottom view. When you press top view, camera goes to top view, then press top view button again to turn it to clockvise or counter clockvise (by holding shift maybe). And the last position is memorized by the button. when user click top view later on, he/she doesnt need to adjust it to clock/counter clockwise again. Same applies to other view buttons. Also when user clicks shift + “ISO” view button, it should switch to ortho view.
There should be “ISOLATED VIEW”. select a face (for ungroupped or non component, just free surfaces) and press isolated view, just displays what i selected. Othervise i need to group and select hide rest of the model. But the entities i m working with are to be connected to somewhere else, grouping at that point is not a solution. I need to see them only. Could you pls add an option to see for this?
RENDER STYLE:
-Completely integrage Eevee in Blender or some sort of Eevee style
-There is only an option to turn sun on/off. Pls add lights menu. Lights will be interactive. Can be turned on and off quickly. Lights should be assigned intensity, color timeline (Same in Blender) So your model will be alive. Lights will cast simple shadows. Computing power is increasing everyday. Especially AMD’s last attack has carried this one level more. You can achieve this. (On the next step i will be asking for Lumion/Twinmotion/Unreal engine style scene creation, just wait for it )
-Pls add an option to adjust SUN’s predefined angles.
-Pls add a draft renderer, not rendering in high quality but it is one more step higher than the current view-port renderer. User will have an option to switch to this view and back.
TEXTURES:
-texture compression ratio is a fixed value i believe. Is there a change to select individually compression ratio for each texture? I am loading a very big picture but it becomes very blurry which i need it very very clear/sharp.
-Pls give ability to adjust loaded image transparency as it is. You have to select use as texture first then you can adjust it’s transparency i wonder why? Sketchup already knows it is an image.
MODIFIERS:
-Blender, 3dsMax, Maya and many others have modifiers which makes the modelling very very powerfull. Modifier is not applied to your geometry unless you wanted to do so. But it still changes the appearance. So, you can remove the modifier at a desired stage if it didnt fit your needs or change the modifiying parameters.
-First of all sketchup is missing;
* subdivide (actually blender has a nice subdivide as modifier)
* chamfer/fillet (best chamfer/fillets are with Rhino, Solidworks, Inventor, Fusion360 but they are not modifiers ofcourse, in sketchup “modifier type” chamfers/fillets are needed because with current consept if you are unhappy with the fillet or chamfer, removing it is a real pain, but with modifiers it is very very simple job, just turn off the modifier 
it goes back to how it was) Chamfer and fillets must be of variable type (Rhino+solidworks)
* Mirror modifier (with clipping ability same in Blender)
EXTRUDES:
-Sketchup has only 1 type of extrude (which is very very easy in comparison to many others but must be advanced) Extrudes should be as below:
-Any directional extrude
-Extrude lines
-Delete with extrude: (Like in solidworks) Extrude something and when you finish it deletes everthing in its path (Pls dont tell this is unnecessary, think about complex surface profiles). Normally i am extruding something and intersecting faces and dealing with the remains Very long and annying job. Integrated script can do it flawlessly.
-Extrude untill selected entity/group/component/faces etc.
-Multiple extrude faces
-Extrude face to vertex normals (from Blender, all connected but facing different faces extrude without tearing apart. Other words thicken the surface)
-Follow me tool is bugged for a reason. Sometimes cannot form the surface properly, dont know why. But next or some more tries after (without changing anything not modifying anything) it is succeded.
-Mirror extrude (extrude to both sides at the same time, valid for vector extrude, multi extrude, thicken surface extrude etc)
-Extrude Drafted
-Offset from target extrude (stops before at a given distance from a selected object)
-Offset from source extrude (starts after a given distance from the source)
-follow me can only extrude faces. It should extrude edges also.
-follow me should be given rotate around axis ability. While extruding it should rotate the object at given values (helix extrude, number of rotation per distance or total number of rotation at the end of the path). Rotation can be either axial or radial.
-Bridge extrude. Just select 2 or more profiles, Sketchup bridges them all with geometry(Blender, solidworks, rhino, and many others have this by default). Or by given path.
-Pls give lofting ability, we can only get it by plugins (many thanks to the authors of those plugins but it is needed by native). This can be same like bridge extrude.
-In MODO, there is “tube primitive” dont look at the name “primitive” it is a very usefull tool. Could you pls integrate that tube ability to sketch up?
-Rotate tool can be an extrude tool. Just rotate and object hit the modifier key, it will be rotated and extruded.
BENDING/TWISTING/DEFORMING:
-Bending, Twisting, Deforming, completely take it from Rhino
-Proportional editting completely take it from Blender Resize tool must take advantages of these tools.
TEXT TOOLS:
- When you create a circle it is still alive even a portion of it remains still able to adjust sides and diameter (up to a level ofcourse). Pls give texts the same. If you dont explode it you will have the ability to modify what is written. Means text box will be alive too
- You cannot write on a curved surface.
- Why text is created as component? (just for glue to any ability of components?) Pls add an option to create text as group also.
- Pls give text, radial/axial bending twisting ability by default.
- Pls give text the ability to appear chamfered/filletted corners by an option.
The rest will be posted seperately as the msg is limited to 32000 characters
4 Likes
MISCALLENOUS:
-Pls increase the primitive shapes by default.
-Pls add fill holes. Sometimes it is very difficult to find which face is missing especially when it is tiny little surface amongst hundreds of others. There is a plugin to make “co-planar faces”. If it is not coplanaer then it doesnt close. But it is not what i need. Just close the holes in the mesh. Blender has it. Closing holes are not limited to closing coplanar edges. Closing means abslutely closing. There should be an advanced algorithm for this. Closing a curved face doesnt mean merge the vertexes so it is done. It should analyse the edges and try to recreate the form while closing. Same like Curviloft by Fredo. but it must be doing this automatically and repeated as many times as it is needed no close “all” the holes. If you are trying to do this by even curviloft, it is a real pain.
-Clipping issue in close distances and when your model gets bigger (as i said above).
-Precission should be increased for engineering desings (presently Sketchup is not as suitable as Rhino/Solidworks or other CAM softwares)
-Organic surfaces and sculpting ability should be there (sandbox tools is very primitive in comparison to 3ds max/ Maya / Blender or even Rhino)
-Surface deforming tools must be there (physical deformation such as wood, stone, tiles, floor, wall, and many others. I will say same like in Zbrush but it will be too much. Just give the primitive ones. Parametric would be wonderful!)
-Physics engine should be integrated.
-Is there a chance (i dont know actually, i guess SU team already doing the best) to utilise more CPU cores (it gets really annoying when you turn on and increase “Profiles” under styles menu in complex models (not big models but complex models even small ones)
-Pls try to integrate “real view” (like in Solidworks or inventor or that kind)
-Pls integrate a rendering engine like Cycles in blender.
-Pls try to integrate “pipe routing, cable routing” (these are just names. They are not only to be used to route cables or pipes. They can be used in many different ways by users.)
- NURBS edit should be integrated.
This is it I hope we can soon see some of the above developments…
1 Like
I did not read your feature request either, I think it is to long to keep focused. In general, it is best to stick to one feature request per topic.
Now, all requests will probably get lost in your post, the same way I get lost in the cluttered interface of the mentioned software😃
5 Likes
Hi Mike thats because i was collecting data for a long time (not only for sketchup but also for many other softwares as you can see). You are right, other softwares have a kind of “scattered” interface up to a certain level. On the other hand a “3D CAD” software should give the ability to form “real world objects” in a digital world as easy/fast as possible. For that you need TOOLS. That was my point. We can walk home, but we have cars/bicycles/public transportation etc. Think they are tools makes you faster. Those other softwares mentioned could be really less complicated with the same ability (some of them are really easy no worries) I can write tons of pages on specific differences but this is not the place. Sketchup has a really different approach. Gives me hope! Thats why i m trying to contribute. First of all you dont need to deal with mesh directly whre as “other software” makes yo to do so. Really unnecessary as for me. But ok, i will try to give suggestions one by one.
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True! With careful management of this model it is very fast to work with. The corresponding Layout file is also very effective (by Layout terms of course). I have smaller projects with way heavier models to work with though which corroborate @DaveR statement:
Hello Yamm,
I guess you’ve been collecting ideas for improving Sketchup for a long time. I read everything. There are really good ideas
I think a lot of these improvements can be offered by plugins.
The problem with the plugins is that there are all kinds, with interfaces very / too different, with access not intuitive enough.
What would be nice is that Setchup provides a good UI guideline for the plugins.
I am not a developer and I do not know what exists as a guideline currently.
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More than a guideline, there should be a GUI framework for plugins, that covers almost every need and easens the burden on the plugin developers work.
Instead of creating everything from scratch, the developer ecosystem should allow only for people to create new functionality and simply provide the intuitive GUI sketchup has for all developers, eventually extending it if needed as Sketchup’s native tools are sometimes too basic for high end users.
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@Yamm, I think it would be a lot easier to read and understand your suggestions if they were divided into separate posts discussing separate topics. As it is now it’s actually physically hard to read (finding where the next line starts). Even just dividing into paragraphs would help readability immensely.
There are some good suggestions , like typing “* N” for multiple guide lines, and some things I can’t understand, like “flat” lines, and a lot of things that can already be done but in different ways to what you suggest, e.g. layers as “guideline banks”, setting the camera to let you draw on any drawing plane, scenes to store axes. These are just a few examples; giving a comprehensible list of comments is hard when the original ideas aren’t clearly listed to start with.
Also, as EstOuest a lot of the things can be done with plugins. I’d like to clarify though that plugins aren’t un-inutive or feel alien to the SketchUp UX because they are plugins, but because the plugin developer community lacks knowledge in UX design. I concur that a UX guideline would help a lot! It’s often not harder to make a better UI, sometimes even simpler, you just need to know how to.
Finally I must say that the reason why the SKetchUp UI is so intuitive and easy to learn is because it lacks a lot of these specific features. SketchUp is minimalist, and you can learn it by just testing what each button does. In many programs finding the basic drawing tools as a new user is like finding a needle in a haystack. You simply can’t do it without a tutorial or tutor saying where you should click, or what command to type.
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Hi Eneroth, thanks for your reply (i m a fan of you by the way and really appreciate your work ). Sorry for the confusing display of my post. I have posted that from my mobile phone (i am on the go for a while). I really love sketchup designing style. It builds up from simple to complex, unlike many other softwares (rhino for example gives everything at once, confuses users right from the beginning). May be it would be better to start learning ruby script. I dont know where to start. If there were a “macro system” or sort of…
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Add an option to remap/not-scale textures on scaled component instances so only the geometry scales and not the texture.
Currently the only work-around I know of is adding in a dummy subgroup of geometry to an instance of a component in which you want the texture to not scale when scaling the instance. This dummy subgroup must also be inside of said component’s geometry as well as set one of its own attributes using a formula that references an attribute of the parent component. While doing this achieves the result I’m looking for it adds clutter to the outline.
If anyone knows of a better way of doing this, it would make me very happy. Having this as a native feature would probably make a ton of users happy as well.
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Do you mean like this?
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Correct, just like that but instead of modifying the definition, you can do it on a per instance basis without modifying the definition. Basically what I’d like is to be able define geometry instances independently from u,v mapping. This way I can have geometric instances of scaled differently with decent looking textures.
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Please add a go button near to the url in component info entity.
Small request, but I’d love if my spacemouse would pan and zoom in layout. Not sure if that’s you or them though.
Thanks!
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Probably some of both. Most likely the 3D Connexion folks will need to write the code to make that work.
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I should think this is a small request:
Holding down Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) while pulling down the File menu would change “New” to “New…” and instead of creating a new file based on you’re default template give you the “choose a template” dialog to use an alternate template just this once without changing your default setting.
Otherwise you have to change your default and then change it back, or use open and go hunting for your templates folder.
Obviously, Command-Option-N would invoke the same command.
SpaceMouse in LyOut would require a live API. That is a quite large task but would also allow for all sorts of extensions in LayOut, just like we have extensions in SketchUp today.
I’m not a big fan of modifier buttons changing menus as there is no clue whatsoever to get you to try it. Windows 7 does it for open a command line window, something I learned just a few months back. Instead I’d propose having New… or New from Template… permanently shown below New.
Dynamic components encryption.
That’s all what I want,Thanks.
I would love a way to extract sketchup vectors into layout vectors, possible with a rebuild function similar to the rebuild function in Rhino. That would help with my drafting workflow. =)
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